Thaindian News

Mumbai, Sep 4 (IANS) A benchmark index of Indian equities markets pared early losses to close 56 points higher Tuesday with robust buying in realty, oil and gas and power stocks.

The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 17,378.68 points, closed at 17,440.87 points, 0.32 percent or 56.47 points up from its previous day’s close at 17,384.40 points.

The Sensex was trading 43 points lower in afternoon trade.

The Sensex touched a high of 17,452.70 points and a low of 17,308.27 points in intra-day trade.

The wider 50-scrip S&P; CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange closed 0.39 percent up at 5,274 points.

On the sectoral front, the BSE realty index was up 23.78 points and so were the oil and gas index, up 97.33 points, and the power index, up 17.30 points.

The major Sensex gainers were Gail, up 2.60 percent at Rs.358.80; Jindal Steel, up 2.44 percent at Rs.352.85; RIL, up 1.87 percent at Rs.778.55; Tata Motors, up 1.71 percent at Rs.234.80; and Tata Steel, up 1.41 percent at Rs.363.10.

The main losers were HDFC, down 1.54 percent at Rs.722.35; Cipla, down 1.47 percent at Rs.379.25; Tata Power, down 1.28 percent at Rs.96.45; Bajaj Auto, down 0.98 percent at Rs.1,648.15; and Sun Pharma, down 0.61 percent at Rs.663.40.

Other Asian markets closed in red. Japan’s Nikkei closed 1.10 percent down while Shanghai’s composite index ended 0.75 percent down. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng closed 0.66 percent down.

At closing bell here, European markets were trading lower too. France’s CAC was down 0.54 percent and so was Germany’s DAX, down by 0.29 percent. Britain’s FTSE 100 was down 0.78 percent.